This week the talk is about another “government shutdown,” which may or may not happen, because Congress and the President can’t or won’t agree on some type of a mechanism to keep the money flowing as spending issues are being debated. There are many different ways to look at the “crisis,” but the real problem boils down to this: the government continues to spend money it does not have, continues to keep passing legislation or promising to support programs that cost money – yet it seldom stops or even seriously reduces those current programs to got us $20 trillion in debt in the first place; but there never seems to be a problem with spending more. And the Trump administration wants to spend on a border wall, and on the military; and the Democrats want to spend on Obamacare; and it seems every member of Congress, Republicans and Democrats alike, have a favorite project to promote. Almost nothing ever gets cut. Even when the administration threatens to withhold federal funds from self-proclaimed “sanctuary cities,” it is being done as a punishment, not because we can’t afford to spend the money.​ We wish that the government would more prudently guard the public purse, and realize that the money for all those programs has to come from somewhere. If they can't find it by reducing present programs, maybe it shouldn't be spent at all!

Its official name is “Massive Ordnance Air Blast,” and the first letters of each of those words were painted on the side of the device, compelling some service man to dub it “Mother Of All Bombs,” and the United States dropped one on a tunnel complex in Afghanistan last week, killing an estimated one hundred ISIS jihadi fighters, as well as destroying a nerve center for our enemies. This was the first time the weapon was used, and it was very effective and also very efficient. MOAB costs about $170,000, and it did what powerful weapons are supposed to do: it eliminated enemies, thus averting the risks entailed if US, Afghan or coalition forces had been forced to take those tunnels one passage at a time. It saved the lives of Americans and of America’s friends – and, if it helps to bring the war to a swifter close, saved the lives of enemies as well.Recall please that the atomic bombs America used on Hiroshima and Nagasaki took around 100,000 Japanese lives – but they also compelled that nation to surrender, forestalling the need for an armed invasion of the Japanese home islands. Estimates of US and Allied casualties in such an invasion were in the one million range, and those among Japanese military and civilian personnel surely would have been even higher. Those bombs saved lives by forcing a surrender and shortening the war. We can hope that MOAB or similar lethal technologies might do the same.

After a most contentious confirmation battle, President Trump’s nomination of Neil Gorsuch as Associate Justice was confirmed by the Senate by a 54-45 vote. Three Democrats (all up for re-election in 2018 from states that went heavily for Mr. Trump last November) joined 51 Republicans (one Republican was absent) in confirming Mr. Gorsuch to the court. This was one of the closest votes in recent history, and that in itself is noteworthy, considering Mr. Gorsuch’s stellar credentials, impeccable record and esteemed reputation. He should have been approved unanimously, as he was when he was appointed to the federal bench without dissent in 2006. But, Democrat Senators look to philosophy rather than credentials, and for the most part do not want conservatives on the highest court. Republicans don’t want progressives on the court, either, but there are always at least a few of them who will look solely at qualifications instead of philosophy and will vote to confirm the likes of Elena Kagan, Sonia Sotomayor and Ruth Bader Ginsberg (the three most liberal members of the Court). That is why Democrat appointees have almost never had trouble reaching the “60-vote threshold” that, under recent interpretation of Senate rules, was a “requirement.” Of course, the Constitution doesn't require 60 votes for Court confirmations.

Well, we are among those hoping that the Republicans haven’t broken one of their main campaign promises – that is, to repeal (and replace) Obamacare – but they have experienced an embarrassing delay in keeping that promise; and it is all self-inflicted. The party has the White House, and it has the votes in both houses of Congress, and yet it was unable to knit a coalition together to pass a repeal. We note that they had passed repeals in previous Congresses, only to have them vetoed by President Obama. The fact that there even is the necessity of knitting a coalition from one’s own party demonstrates the problem that the Republicans have. And, despite Speaker Paul Ryan’s warning that we will have Obamacare for “the foreseeable future,” the Republicans and the White House are working on ways to revive the repeal. And, Secretary of Health and Human Services Tom Price, a medical doctor and a strong opponent of Obamacare when he was in the US House of Representatives, is still unequivocally in favor of ending Obamacare. There are plenty of things he can do from a regulatory standpoint, since the Obamacare law (passed, we remind everyone, 100% with Democratic votes) includes dozens of references along the lines of “The Secretary” shall decide or determine various ways in which the law shall be interpreted or enforced. The “Secretary” when the law was passed was President Obama’s appointee – but today’s Secretary is not, and he should respond appropriately. What’s more, the Obamacare structure is collapsing of its own weight and will continue to do so, even if Republicans do nothing. However, that would be, potentially at least, irresponsible; so we hope that they manufacture a law that repeals Obamacare, and also find the votes to pass it. Let’s face it – the failure to repeal has the potential of being a disaster for the Republicans; and that is why Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats were leaping for joy. The did so for two reasons: 1) the signature action of the Obama years has been preserved; and 2) the Republicans have disillusioned and dispirited their own base of support. There are many ways Republicans can recapture that support, but the best way is if they do what they said they would do: repeal the Obamacare law. For some reason that is beyond our understanding, a few Republicans succumbed to the fear that they would pay a fierce price at the polls if they voted to repeal. We have news for them: they will pay a much larger price at the polls if they do not. The Democrats know that – and that is why they are so gleeful.

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